It’s the gold customary now.
Crew USA alum made it loud and clear that its first Olympic males’s hockey championship because the 1980 Miracle on Ice isn’t from hell freezing over this go-around, however as an alternative the results of what generations laid the groundwork for.
“USA Hockey has been constructing in the direction of this since 1980,” Olympian Ken Morrow informed The Submit Sunday, including that he “by no means had any doubts” that the lads would earn gold once more.
Morrow, who obtained up at 6 a.m. for a raucous watch occasion Sunday, wasn’t the one one giddy to see the 2-1 additional time barn-burning, winner-take-all dogfight in opposition to Canada. It grew to become the height second of “pure pleasure” he’s shared with fellow “Miracle on Ice” members all through the 2026 video games.
“We’ve had a textual content thread going all through the Olympics,” Morrow stated. “It’s simply been nothing however ‘Go USA’ by way of all of it.”
Issues had been a household affair for a lot of former Crew USA members, about all of whom flooded the present males’s and ladies’s rosters with help letters, stated former two-time Olympian Pat LaFontaine of Lloyd Harbor.
“[My letter] was telling the blokes, ‘Seize the wheel and drive the bus. That is your time,’ mainly quoting the nice Herb Brooks,” stated LaFontaine, who’s assured the following males’s gold gained’t have a 46-year wait.
Morrow, who gained 4 Stanley Cups with the Islanders mere months after capturing gold, stated Brooks, head coach of the 1980 Crew USA, had impressed the present Crew USA’s “model that emphasised skating, velocity, ability, puck possession.”
“I believe he can be very proud to see the place USA Hockey has come,” added the one-time Northport man, now a scouting director for the Islanders in Kansas Metropolis.
LaFontaine performed for post-miracle America, when public sentiment was not optimistic in regards to the pink, white, and blue.
“Our technology, we had been at all times informed, ‘the explanation they name it a miracle, was as a result of it was a miracle — you’ll by no means beat finest on finest,” stated the previous Islander, Sabre and Ranger.
“We had heard that for years.”
He didn’t win Olympic gold in 1984 or 1998, however silenced critics within the 1996 World Cup.
LaFontaine and teammates, together with present US common supervisor Invoice Guerin and Keith Tkachuk — the dad of 2026 gold medalists Matthew and Brady — gained first over the Canadians in a best-of-three last.
Till Sunday, it was the final time the American males beat Canada for a gold.
“It was a few years of sacrifice to get to this subsequent technology … Now the 2026 group, they’re carrying on the custom,” stated LaFontaine, who Morrow’s miracle group impressed as a teen and beat the Soviet Union on his birthday — the identical day America gained gold in 2026.
“We’re sitting again at present with an enormous smile of satisfaction and a tear in our eyes, and are simply grateful for what the sport has meant to the USA.”
Each LaFontaine and Morrow additionally praised Lengthy Island’s Charlie McAvoy, whose defensive heroics helped fend off Canada’s relentless assault on a number of events throughout Sunday’s gold medal match.
“[He’s] blazing a path for extra Lengthy Island youngsters to comply with,” Morrow stated of the Boston Bruin from Lengthy Seaside.
“Many of those gamers will go on and possibly win a Stanley Cup, possibly win different championships, however that is the top.”
